1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus of recording data on a recording medium. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for differentiating and managing LOW and DFL entries, so as to enhance recording and reproducing efficiency of data.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, a new type of high density optical disc, such as a Blu-ray RE-writable disc (BD-RE), that can record and store high definition audio and video data for a long period of time is expected to be developed and introduced to the recording medium industry and market. As shown in FIG. 1, the BD-RE is allocated with a lead-in area, a data zone, and a lead-out area. An inner spare area (ISA) and an outer spare area (OSA) are respectively allocated at a fore end and a rear end of the data zone. The BD-RE is recorded in cluster units, which correspond to a predetermined recording unit. Referring to FIG. 1, whether or not a defect area exists within the data zone can be detected during the recording of the data. When a defect area is detected, a series of replacement recording operations is performed, such as replacement recording the data that is intended to be recorded in the defect area in a spare area (e.g., the inner spare area (ISA)). Then, a position information of the detected defect area and a position information of the replacement recorded spare area are recorded and stored in a defect list (DFL) within the lead-in area as management information.
Therefore, since the data that is to be recorded in the defect area is replacement recorded in the spare area, the data replacement recorded in the spare area is read and reproduced, instead of the data of the defect area, thereby preventing in advance a data recording/reproducing error from occurring. Meanwhile, the recordable blu-ray disc (BD-R) has recently been under development. However, since data can only be recorded once in the entire area of the optical disc, unlike the re-writable optical disc, data cannot be physically overwritten in the recordable optical disc. Nevertheless, there may occur instances in the recordable optical disc, where the recorded data is wished to be edited or partially modified, and, for simplicity of usage from the part of the host or the user, overwriting of the data may be required. Accordingly, a method for managing defect areas in the above-described recordable optical disc is required, and so an efficient method enabling such defect management and overwriting to be performed is urgently required.